There is a general consensus rule going around Steemit that; posting on your blog everyday with quality, community building content, is the way to build your following. And while I cannot disagree with this maxim, but only posting as a beginner minnow and not commenting might take around 6~8 months to gain a decent following of, say, between 500 ~ 1,000 followers. According to the 'life cycle' of Steemit by @aggroed, minnows should comment, dolphins post and wales curate. If you really enjoy posting from the start, or painting or all the other many multiple ways people share their creativity, then this idea of concentrated commenting may not be for you.
Minnows Thrive On Attention
The psychology of being noticed and having attention towards something we have created or were involved in, appears to be far more appreciative from a beginners perspective (minnow), than someone who has already had hundreds of comments and upvotes. This is not to suggest, in any way that; the authors with the most comments within the trending and hot sections respectively, are any less appreciative of their comments, no. The point here is how much more attention is focused towards comments on a minnow's post, from that particular minnow's perspective. This seems very effective when commenting on a introduction post. It is usually, but not always, the first post a minnow will author here on Steemit, and like any introduction done in the real world, attention is focused on the eagerly awaited response or reply.
This is the first stage of building rapport with another human being, and connecting with someone who, in the majority of introductory posts, is obviously wanting attention but, more importantly; needs help because they just joined the platform and want to learn how to grow their following. The wonderful paradox within this is; the act of commenting on their intro post or early authored posts, is the answer to the question, "How, as a minnow, do I grow my following?"!
You Shouldn't Ask
According to Steemit Etiquette; directly asking for a reward of either being upvoted, resteemed or followed, is something other more popular social sites may do, as in; follow for follow etc., but on Steemit we should not. The whole idea, as I understand it, is to focus on connecting through quality content that is helpful and benefits the reader. In this way, the true merit of the comment or post is given to the reader, rather than directing the flow of appreciation back to the poster because their ulterior motive is to have instead of give.
So by not asking to be followed, it creates a void or absence within our communication which gets filled with our helping them and getting to know them a little more, then, as a consequence of this, an amazing thing happens...MORE PEOPLE FOLLOW YOU!!
It can be as easy as simply going into the 'New' tab at the top of the page and either scrolling down through the most recent posts there or, clicking on the introduceyourself posts on the left within the 'All Tags'. Not forgetting, of course, any other interesting tags that takes your fancy, but the point here is to use the 'New' section. Now, the reputation score of the authors to focus on, can be from, say, 25 to 35 ish. It's really up to yourself who you personally want to comment on and what reputation score, but 25 is a good start.
How To Comment
Don't worry about what to say, as much as how you say it! What I mean by that is; focus on exactly how they are communicating what they communicate. Put your attention on the specific words they are communicating their experience with. For example; if someone uses language like, "I feel this way..." or "I'm very close to...", then they tend to have a certain experience of their surroundings and will usually respond to your comments if you use the same words when connecting with them!
A typical comment's structure could be to obviously welcome the person to Steemit and then give them a compliment either about the poster themselves and/or their post/pic/music etc. Offer encouragement and maybe even upvote the post or resteem if you think appropriate. The point is to put some thought into it and not just saying 'Hi' or 'Great' or 'Nice Post' etc. Really read the post and get, as best you can, an understanding of why they are posting and more importantly for connecting; how they are communicating with the words they use.
I hope this is helpful for the new guys who want to build their community in an, understandably shorter time than what we have come to accept as the normal time frame for newbies to build a following. Give it a go and let me know how you get on? Below are four great videos which I have to thank for the initial inspiration towards actually trying this, then later finding out it actually works!
Vid 2
Vid 3
Vid 4
I wish you all the very best in your endeavours and if there is anything inaccurate within this post then please comment below so as to broaden the learning and understanding of what little experience I may think I have regarding this wonderful subject within an even greater multiverse commonly known as Steemit!
Be the connection,
Phi23